Cooling snow

It’s getting a bit warm again here in the UK so the current Christmas Kickstart challenge theme seems perfect if you need to visualise cooler things — Jo and this month’s elf, Caroline, are taking a snow day.

I’ve gone in for a close up with my card and featured some detailed individual flakes on an inky background. It proved extremely difficult to photograph this today so I've done a "flat lay" photo as well since the flakes show better that way (but look very dull). The flakes are a lovely silver but apparently too reflective for today's lighting conditions and my camera! If you combine the two images in your head you’ll probably arrive at something close to the reality of it.

The inks were just applied by smooshing them on there with a piece of acetate and the flakes are embossed with silver powder once the background was dry. 

A stamped sentiment to finish and you’re done — a nice quick card with a short supplies list! Ink smooshing means no two cards will ever be exactly the same so this would be quite a nice design to make multiples; you could leave the flakes stamps set up in your stamping platform but the background would mean each card was unique. Just don't try photographing them on a sunny day!

Stamps:

Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper: cold press watercolour

Ink: 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean)
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Detail embossing powder (silver)
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Rustic Pear

I made a card this morning (well, I say this morning - it took so long I actually finished it after lunch) using lots of die cuts. I may share that soon if I can convince myself I like it! As an antidote, I felt the need to return to my "stampy stamper" roots so I combined a couple of challenges for a rustic "just because" card.

Lost Coast Designs is asking for Fruit, Flowers and Foliage this month and Retro Rubber's Taste of Summer challenge has a fruit theme so those two played nicely together. As my ripe pear still has leaves attached I guess I can count both fruit and foliage for LCD!

I stamped the pear (one of my very early stamp purchases, grey unmounted rubber from an unknown maker), masked it and then stamped the Perspective Floor as a sort of tablecloth grounding. Everything is coloured with pencils and it's finished with a simple sentiment and my usual rounded corner.

Stamps:
Pear (unknown maker, I've had it since 2007)
Perspective Floor (Lost Coast Designs, had mine since 2023)
Sentiment from Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday, no longer with us, 2011)

Paper: kraft

Ink: 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain — May

It's reveal day again at Card Chain Challenge where this time 25 players signed up from around the world to send and receive happy mail. CCC is rapidly approaching a total of 5,000 cards made and sent — that’s a lot of creativity and card-making friendship over the years. Big thanks to Gail and Jo for keeping our lovely crafting community going.

My card has gone to Imke in Germany. I’ve gone very CAS although not quite one layer this time — the little post boy/cherub is fussy cut and raised just a tiny bit with some card scraps. 

I used low tack tape to mask off the edges of the card, stamped a fine script all over and blended a little of the same ink to define the panel a bit. Stamped the various post marks etc in grey and black, used the post cancellation lines as a little “whoosh” behind the delivery boy, added a greeting and called it done.

I only managed one of the options this time (postal) but as Gail always says, it only takes one to play!

Stamps: French Mail and Artsy Banners (both Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tuskineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite and Charcoal)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antqiue Linen)

Other: Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still time to sign up for the next chain if you’d like to join the fun.

No Peeking

The theme at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers this month is gnomes. As I got an idea in my head that I thought would work best with more than one gnome, I finally caved in and got some more gnome stamps. Pointy Hat Gnome has long been the sole representative of his clan and he's a bit too big for multiples to feature comfortably on a standard card! I picked up somebody’s crafty de-stash set on eBay featuring some of his smaller brethren.

They may not look threatening but gnomes can be a determined bunch — perfect for protecting the gift pile and making sure there’s no peeking before the big day! Gnomeland Security is a serious business and they’re not about to stand for any funny stuff. Head gnome Herbert is raised up a little (courtesy of some card scraps) just to reinforce his status, especially as he’s not the biggest gnome on the block.

 

I think this could work for Christmas or birthday as the gnomes are not in traditional festive colours. Funny how you see things on the photo that you’ve not noticed “in person” — I’m thinking I’ll go back in with a fineliner and make their little eye dots black since I stamped with a dark brown ink, I think it might bring a little more character to their faces.

 

Stamps: 

Christmas Gnomes (Paper Boutique) 

Funny Accessories (Katzelkraft, no longer with us) 

 

Paper: Bristol board

 

Ink: Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)

 

Other:

Copic markers
White paint pen (Posca)

Computer generated sentiment 

Corner chomper

Here’s the link to the challenge with all the details, there are still a few days to play: 

Happy New Home!

The Die Cut Divas challenge this month is all about celebrations, so I decided to concentrate on die cutting and embossing for a card to celebrate a move to a new home when my hubby asked if I could make something for him to give to friends.

Last time I made a new home card, I observed I didn’t have anything like a pot plant which would have filled a space in the layout. I fixed that by picking up a couple of MFT die sets from someone having a crafty de-stash on eBay and I’ve used several of them here. I used Copics to colour the pots (I went with traditional terracotta) and the foliage and then added a little sparkle with a Spica glitter pen. I thought a white embossed brick wall might make it look like a whitewashed conservatory. The sentiment is computer generated and cut with a stitched rectangle die to make “shelves” for the pots.

Supplies:
Potted Plants and Plants & Pots die sets (MFT)
Brickwork 3D embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Copic markers
Spica glitter pen (green)
White paint pen (Posca)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Bristol board

What are you celebrating? Whatever it is, if you use a die or an embossing folder, why not share with the Die Cut Divas here

Christmas Kickstart — mid month already!

My first card for this month’s Christmas Kickstart challenge featured a robin in snow. For my mid-month card I thought I’d keep the snow but switch to a rather different bird so may I present: penguins in snow! 

Cute as they may be, they presented a serious challenge when it came to photography — for some reason they absolutely did not want to be captured for posterity. I had four separate photoshoots with them and realised when I deleted all the photos off the camera having finally got a usable one that there were 84 pictures 😱 

The penguins were stamped on white, coloured with pencils and fussy cut. I stamped the image on the black panel as well and added heat embossing for the flakes above their heads and the snow around their feet. Some white pencil adds a bit extra snowiness and a die cut flake gives the sentiment a bit of a lift.

Stamps:
Bundled penguins (Stampendous)
Merriest Christmas Wishes (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board , smooth black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Detail white embossing powder (Wow)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Stitched rectangle die A6 size (Paper Rose, one die cut modified to fit a longer sentiment)

Thanks for stopping by! Jo and I would love for you to come and join us with your festive birds if you’re getting ahead with your Christmas cards:

 

 

Grasses at dawn

I'm combining a couple of challenges today — Lost Coast Designs want to see cards where there’s “nobody here”  (no people or humanoid figures) and Retro Rubber is giving us a colour palette of soft pinks and mauves.

I blended pink and mauve inks onto my panel then used a torn scrap of paper to add a couple of shades of pink chalk and Pan Pastel in soft rippled lines for my dawn sky (not sure how well the camera has picked that up).

The sentiment is stamped with the mauve ink and some tiny dotted highlights added with a white paint pen for that dewy morning effect.

Stamps:
Shrubbery medium (Lost Coast Designs - I've had mine at least five years)
Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board and black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Wisteria)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spun Sugar) 

Other:
Chalks
Pan Pastel
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
White paint pen (Posca) 

Thanks for stopping by! Both challenges are linked below if you fancy playing along.

 

Messy CAS

Friday’s Mixability challenge at Splitcoast Stampers must have just hit the right mood as I immediately sat down to make something. Host Janelle wanted to see “controlled chaos” — lots going on (maximalism) but keeping the overall design CAS (clean and simple).

There’s more area covered here than I would typically do for a CAS design but I think I just about got away with it!

For a Mixability many moons ago we made painty circles with the universal craft tool (index finger). Here’s the tutorial we originally used: painty circles. I immediately decided to revisit that technique, using several acrylic paints on a page of an old German book (I keep a few books that have broken binding etc just to use in the craft room). I then chose a couple of favourite areas and die cut into squares. Matted with black, embossed a small portion of the card base with a border embossing folder (actually used twice for a wider strip) and finally added some enamel dots and a simple sentiment.

Supplies:
Book paper
Acrylic paints
Metallic watercolour (Gansai Tambi Starry Colours)
Pop Culture embossing folders (Cuttlebug)
Enamel Accents by Ranger (black)
Sentiment from an old Technqiue Tuesday stanp set
White and black cardstock

The painty technique is fun to do and the results will never be the same twice.

Thanks for stopping by!

Robin in the snow

I’m delighted to be undertaking elfin duties at Christmas Kickstart this month, especially as the theme is right up my alley — thanks for inviting me Jo! I think bird images are beaten into second place only after florals in my stamping stash so Season’s Tweetings is perfect for me to don the pointy ears and elf hat and join Jo in celebrating birds in winter!

As the current We Love Stamping challenge is All Creatures Great and Small I’m joining in there, too.

I had a new robin image waiting to see ink for the first time so he came out to play. They’re lovely to see all year round but really come into their own in winter, supplying that little flash of vivid colour when everything can seem a bit drab and monochrome. 

Linda has been using some pretty ombre card bases recently — perhaps those were in my mind when I sat down to make this as I used some Pan Pastels to create a soft ombre winter sky for my robin. The gentle snow is just paint pen dots and splodges and I added a tiny bit of snow to the branch with the same pen. The robin is coloured with pencils and as I stamped in a brown ink I used a fineliner to make his beady little eye black. A nice big sentiment and my usual rounded corner finish it off. Light and flat for easy mailing!

Stamps:
Into the Wild (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Pan Pastel (Pthalo Green Tint, Turquoise, Blue)
Paint pen by Posca (White)
Corner Chomper
Black fineliner

We’d love for you to join us with some wintery bird life on your cards, here’s the challenge link, it would be great to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

  

Link in the chain — April

It’s the 2nd of the month which means it must be reveal day at Card Chain Challenge — 22 card makers from around the world played along this time, sending happy mail to fellow crafters and finding their own happy mail on the doormat/in the mail box!

From the options on offer this month I chose two of the themes: long ears and spring. The wee pup has the longest ears I could think of in my collection and his egg-carrying pal is definitely welcoming spring. They’ve travelled across the ocean to the fabulous Linda where I hope they raised a smile.

I’ve stuck to my usual CCC aesthetic of a one layer card. I debossed the centre panel for a little extra interest and used low tack tape around the edges to keep the ink off while stencilling. Chick was stamped and masked first, pup stamped and masked second and the background stencilled over them. Everything had a base layer of Copic colour and then coloured pencil detail over the top. I added a few Enamel Accent dots, it’s been ages since I did white on white like that, I do quite like it as a subtle way to pull the eye to the sentiment here.

Stamps:
Les Chiens (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Spring Chicks and More (Tom Fun line at Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Enamel Accents by Ranger (white)
Strobes stencil (Visible Image)

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still time to sign up for the May challenge at CCC if you fancy making and sending one card and getting a card in return.

Thanks for stopping by!